1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to 3D image capturing devices and controller chips thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
The growing multimedia demand has brought 3D video into the limelight. Producing 3D images is based on the concept of binocular vision. Typically, two 2D image capturing devices are required. By combining the image captured by the first 2D image capturing device and the image captured by the second 2D image capturing device, a 3D image is generated.
FIG. 1 depicts the concept of the Red/Cyan anaglyph 3D. The images captured by a 2D image capturing device that imitates a human's left eye are termed left eye images. The images captured by a 2D image capturing device that imitates a human's right eye are termed right eye images. A 3D image (i.e. an anaglyph image) is generated by integrating red color data of a right image with green color and blue color data of a left image, where the green color and blue color data form cyan color data.
FIG. 2 depicts the concept of the side-by-side 3D. As shown, a left image and a right image are aligned side by side to form a side-by-side 3D image.
However, in comparison with a single 2D image capturing device, the apparatus for binocular vision (capturing left and right eye images) costs more than twice the amount of the single 2D image capturing device. It is an important issue to decrease the manufacturing cost of a 3D image capturing device.